Diverse biological effects of glycosyltransferase genes from Tartary buckwheat

Background: Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) is an edible cereal crop whose sprouts have been marketed and commercialized for their higher levels of anti-oxidants, including rutin and anthocyanin. UDP-glucose flavonoid glycosyltransferases (UFGTs) play an important role in the biosynthesis of flavonoids in plants. So far, few studies are available on UFGT genes that may play a role in tartary buckwheat flavonoids biosynthesis. Here, we report on the identification and functional characterization of seven UFGTs from tartary buckwheat that are potentially involved in flavonoid biosynthesis (and have varying effects on plant growth and development when overexpressed in Arabidopsis thaliana.) Results: Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the potential function of the seven FtUFGT proteins, FtUFGT6, FtUFGT7, FtUFGT8, FtUFGT9, FtUFGT15, FtUFGT40, and FtUFGT41, could be divided into three Arabidopsis thaliana functional subgroups that are involved in flavonoid biosynthesis of and anthocyanin accumulation. A significant positive correlation between FtUFGT8 and FtUFGT15 expression and anthocyanin accumulation capacity was observed in the tartary buckwheat seedlings after cold stress. Overexpression in Arabidopsis thaliana showed that FtUFGT8, FtUFGT15, and FtUFGT41 significantly increased the anthocyanin content in transgenic plants. Unexpectedly, overexpression of FtUFGT6, while not leading to enhanced anthocyanin accumulation, significantly enhanced the growth yield of transgenic plants. When wild-type plants have only cotyledons, most of the transgenic plants of FtUFGT6 had grown true leaves. Moreover, the growth speed of the oxFtUFGT6 transgenic plant root was also significantly faster than that of the wild type. At later growth, FtUFGT6 transgenic plants showed larger leaves, earlier twitching times and more tillers than wild type, whereas FtUFGT15 showed opposite results. Conclusions: Seven FtUFGTs were isolated from tartary buckwheat. FtUFGT8, FtUFGT15, and FtUFGT41 can significantly increase the accumulation of total anthocyanins in transgenic plants. Furthermore, overexpression of FtUFGT6 increased the overall yield of Arabidopsis transgenic plants at all growth stages. However, FtUFGT15 shows the opposite trend at later growth stage and delays the growth speed of plants. These results suggested that the biological function of FtUFGT genes in tartary buckwheat is diverse

Rashba-splitting-induced topological flat band detected by anomalous resistance oscillations beyond the quantum limit in ZrTe5_5

Topological flat band, on which the kinetic energy of topological electrons is quenched, represents a platform for investigating the topological properties of correlated systems. Recent experimental studies on flattened electronic bands have mainly concentrated on 2-dimensional materials created by van der Waals heterostructure-based engineering. Here, we report the observation of a topological flat band formed by polar-distortion-assisted Rashba splitting in a 3-dimensional Dirac material ZrTe$_5$. The polar distortion and resulting Rashba splitting on the band are directly detected by torque magnetometry and the anomalous Hall effect, respectively. The local symmetry breaking further flattens the band, on which we observe resistance oscillations beyond the quantum limit. These oscillations follow the temperature dependence of the Lifshitz-Kosevich formula but are evenly distributed in B instead of 1/B in high magnetic fields. Furthermore, the cyclotron mass anomalously gets enhanced about 10$^2$ times at field ~20 T. These anomalous properties of oscillations originate from a topological flat band with quenched kinetic energy. The topological flat band, realized by polar-distortion-assisted Rashba splitting in the 3-dimensional Dirac system ZrTe$_5$, signifies an intrinsic platform without invoking moir\'e or order-stacking engineering, and also opens the door for studying topologically correlated phenomena beyond the dimensionality of two.Comment: 32 pages, 11 figures; Version of original submissio

Research Advances on Organic Acid Degradation Process and Its Effects on Flavor of Fermented Alcohol Beverage

Moderate organic acids can make fermented alcohol beverage produce comfortable flavor and delicate taste, but during the fermentation process, the content of organic acids in fermented alcohol beverage is unstable. Too high can easily result in astringent and bitter taste and poor flavor, while too low can make the wine bland and tasteless. The type of organic acid also has important influence on the flavor of fermented alcohol beverage. Some methods of acid degradation are frequently used to accurately reduce the level of the primary organic acids in fermented alcohol beverage in order to improve its flavor and quality. This helps to better maintain the volatile flavor components in fermented alcohol beverage and control its flavor. In order to provide a theoretical foundation for improving the quality of fermented alcohol beverage and optimizing the brew processing, and promoting the large-scale sustainable development of fermented alcohol beverage industry, this paper describes the main acid degradation processes and their principles in fermented alcohol beverage, analyzes the benefits, drawbacks, and limitation of various processes, discusses the effects of acid degradation processes on the types of flavor substances in fermented alcohol beverage, and offers an outlook on future research for flavor regulation of fermented alcohol beverage

Facilitating Image Search with a Scalable and Compact Semantic Mapping

Formerly IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics</p

Dregs of Cardamine hupingshanensis as a feed additive to improve the egg quality

Natural plant herbs have many active compounds to prevent poultry diseases and improve poultry products. However, most herbs are supplied for human medicine. Thus, for economic and sustainable development purposes, the dregs of Cardamine hupingshanensis (DCH) were developed as a feed additive to improve the egg quality of laying hens in this work. Results showed that the contents of selenium in hen serum and eggs were increased under DCH feeding. Subsequently, DCH also promotes the antioxidant capacity and immunity of laying hens through the increase of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and immunoglobulin G (IgG) by ELISA detection. Finally, production performance and egg quality were further graded by monitoring the product condition and scoring the indexes of egg quality, which also displayed that DCH as a feed additive significantly improved the egg quality by enhancing yolk color, eggshell thickness, and egg shape index

Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase deficiency: estimation of prevalence in the Chinese population and analysis of genotype-phenotype association

ObjectiveFructose-1,6-bisphosphatase deficiency (FBP1D) is a rare inborn error due to mutations in the FBP1 gene. The genetic spectrum of FBP1D in China is unknown, also nonspecific manifestations confuse disease diagnosis. We systematically estimated the FBP1D prevalence in Chinese and explored genotype-phenotype association.MethodsWe collected 101 FBP1 variants from our cohort and public resources, and manually curated pathogenicity of these variants. Ninety-seven pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants were used in our cohort to estimate Chinese FBP1D prevalence by three methods: 1) carrier frequency, 2) permutation and combination, 3) Bayesian framework. Allele frequencies (AFs) of these variants in our cohort, China Metabolic Analytics Project (ChinaMAP) and gnomAD were compared to reveal the different hotspots in Chinese and other populations. Clinical and genetic information of 122 FBP1D patients from our cohort and published literature were collected to analyze the genotype-phenotypes association. Phenotypes of 68 hereditary fructose intolerance (HFI) patients from our previous study were used to compare the phenotypic differences between these two fructose metabolism diseases.ResultsThe estimated Chinese FBP1D prevalence was 1/1,310,034. In the Chinese population, c.490G&gt;A and c.355G&gt;A had significantly higher AFs than in the non-Finland European population, and c.841G&gt;A had significantly lower AF value than in the South Asian population (all p values &lt; 0.05). The genotype-phenotype association analyses showed that patients carrying homozygous c.841G&gt;A were more likely to present increased urinary glycerol, carrying two CNVs (especially homozygous exon1 deletion) were often with hepatic steatosis, carrying compound heterozygous variants were usually with lethargy, and carrying homozygous variants were usually with ketosis and hepatic steatosis (all p values &lt; 0.05). By comparing to phenotypes of HFI patients, FBP1D patients were more likely to present hypoglycemia, metabolic acidosis, and seizures (all p-value &lt; 0.05).ConclusionThe prevalence of FBP1D in the Chinese population is extremely low. Genetic sequencing could effectively help to diagnose FBP1D

The Study of Transport Category Aircraft Fire Safety Airworthiness Design

AbstractThis paper discussed the classification of aircraft zones related to fire based on the existence and characteristics of aircraft flammable fluids and ignition sources as well as fire safety provisions in order to establish the aircraft level safety requirements. Then, the aircraft fire safety airworthiness design process has been presented to allocate the aircraft level safety requirements in terms of zones. And the aircraft manufacturers can use this process as a guidance to perform their fire safety design and demonstrate the compliance of aircraft fire safety

Simulation calculation of 3D electric field and natural flashover analysis of ice‐covered silicone rubber insulator

Abstract The effects of uneven icing, number of icicles, inclination angle of icicle, ice pallets and arc ignition on the electric field are ignored for the two‐dimensional axisymmetric model of ice‐covered insulator. Therefore, a 3D simulation model was developed in this paper. The average electric field strength of air gap (Eav) and maximum field strength of icicle tip (Emax) were determined to characterize the influence of various factors on the electric field distortion degree. The results show that compared with the insulator without ice and with a dry ice, the supply voltage is almost entirely applied to all icicle air gaps for a wet ice‐covered insulator. Eav is independent of icicle diameter and icicle number but increases with the increment of icicle length and icicle inclination angle. Emax raises with the increase of icicle length, icicle number, icicle inclination angle and icicle diameter. As the source of electric field distortion, the ice pallets on the surface of the sheds rise the field strength of air gap. Based on the simulation analysis and natural icing test, the applied voltage is redistributed in the remaining air gaps when an arc occurs in the gap near the high‐voltage terminal, thereby causing the subsequent flashover